GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 275

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 275, which features a clock speed of 633 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1134 MHz. It also features a 448-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 240 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 28 ROPs.

Avatar

Settings:	Ultra High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		38 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		32 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (19%)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		39 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		31 FPS
	Difference: 8 FPS (26%)

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		73 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		60 FPS
	Difference: 13 FPS (22%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		86 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		74 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (16%)

Far Cry 2

Settings:	Very High Qualty
AA:	none
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Intel Core i7-920,3 x 2 GB Ram,Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit SP1 (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		64 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		53 FPS
	Difference: 11 FPS (21%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		90 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		74 FPS
	Difference: 16 FPS (22%)

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		85 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		69 FPS
	Difference: 16 FPS (23%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		108 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		91 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (19%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		38 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		34 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (12%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		28 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		24 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (17%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		67 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		47 FPS
	Difference: 20 FPS (43%)

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GeForce GTX 275 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 275 wins overall, by 127 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 275		716 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		589 FPS
	Difference: 127 FPS (22%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 37 Watts (20%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 275 should in theory be just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 15120 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 is a lot (approximately 37%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13776 (37%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 275 is the winner, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1596 (10%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.